Thursday, February 14, 2008

A Different Kind of Valentine's Day

John and I have never really embraced Valentine's Day as the end-all of all romantic occassions. I remember the first year we were married we watched "The Little Mermaid" together and thought that was kind of sappy-cute to do together. Some years it turns out that we make something special happen, other years we're still reeling over all of the activity and expenses of Christmas that nothing is left over.

This year, the real celebrating will be Friday night. We scored a great deal at an auction for dinner, lodging, and breakfast here in town - throw in passes we already had for a movie (to be spent watching "Fool's Gold") and I'm looking forward to a VERY enjoyable date night with my man. That being said, my expectations for the actual evening of Valentine's Day were pretty low.

A while ago, I whined to John that one of these days it would be cool if he would consider taking his wife to one of these Duck Basketball games he scores tickets on instead of just Brayden. Always eager to please, he went right to action and asked Doug Koke (the guy who rides out on the Harley at the Duck games - as well as the owner of the printing company that Tyson Steele works with) if he knew of extra tickets. Doug made it happen and gifted us with tickets to the game this evening against Washington.

While I've attended functions at Mac Court before, I've never actually been to a basketball game. I was not blown away by the experience - just not the same feel as a football game - a little bit smellier in fact, but the ambience inside Mac Court is very cool, and we picked a darn good game to be at. It was a dominant victory for the Ducks and some of the plays looked like the Harlem Globetrotters were out there. Also amazing how much more accurate the Ducks were at their three pointers all evening, when they could hardly even make any of their free throws.

Following the game, we were invited to join Doug, his wife, and another couple to dinner at the Downtown Athletic Club. We didn't know this going into the evening, so it was a little odd walking in with jeans and athletic wear to a decked out Valentines' meal - but, hey, it's Eugene, so I suppose restaurants hardly blink an eye to it. I'll admit, I can't say I was super comfortable with the idea of extending the evening with strangers a generation ahead of me, but that's where I can safely say my own comfort-range often limits my opportunity to enjoy things in life I end up missing out on. As I spoke predominately to Nancy, it's amazing how quickly you can find so many things in common - from softball to having a baby in water - I wasn't ready to stop talking even as the waiters were setting the tables for tomorrow. Does that mean I'll be excited the next time John suggests we have dinner with strangers? Nope, I'm sure I'll drag my feet again, but tonight was a real treat and I'm very thankful to the generosity of Doug and Nancy for the experience.

How was your Valentine's Day?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chele said -
Steph- so glad the Ducks won - I saw the score this morning and thought of you.
We celebrated with our traditional Nanyang's Chinese take-out - that was especially delicious last night! We also made this Valentine's Day special with signing papers for our new house - making the whole experience just about complete and final. I recall last Valentine's Day as being a VERY low day for us - so many bullets that we - and the business - were trying to dodge (and not sure if we could). At that point, we didn't even have our property secured in our name. Now - a year later, we have a house. God is so good... What a blessing!!!!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to you, Michele! It's so rewarding to replace bad memories with good ones.

My V.D. was great, too. On Wed. evening I got out all my crafty stuff and we sat down together to make cards for each other. The next morning I got 3 beautiful, handmade cards from my favorite people. And they were really tickled to share their own creations with each other. I hope we make a tradition of it. This year I finally replaced a lot of rotten memories that are finally becoming just specks in my rearview mirror. Yes, God is good!!

Jodi said...

Fun night! I am always up for nights like that, where the evening just sort of flows...

I started my day with red roses and ended it falling asleep to a foot rub. Can't complain!!